Reading a book is perhaps the greatest source of pleasure to a cultured person. Reading broadens his outlook, drives away his narrow prejudices and lightens up his mind with truth and knowledge.

Books are our best friends. They never deceive or desert us in our hour of need like so many of our human friends, and the advantages once received from the reading of books remain with us throughout our lives.

It is a great pleasure for us to read the books of the master minds of the past that have brightened up the ages with the strength and beauty of their vision. As we read their books, we seem to see them appear before us. We seem to talk with them and they also seem to instruct us through the medium of their books.

Reading the great poetry of the past we seem to be carried away to a kingdom of joy and forgetfulness, a kingdom where there is no care, no worry, no anxiety. We come to be acquainted with the master minds of the world like Valmiki, Kalidas, Tagore, Shakespeare, Milton and Shelley, Shaw, Yeats and Owen and many others through the medium of their literary productions and feel inspired by their beauty, grace and idealism.

Reading books is also one way of passing our spare time. A person given to the reading of books can never find time hanging heavily on him. When you have time and no work to do take a book from the shelf and time will pass pleasantly. Reading also relieves us of our mental suffering. When one is struck down with sorrow he may, with a book in his hand, forget all his trouble in the comfort of his bedroom or under the shade of a tree.

Reading not only gives us pleasure, it also enriches our mind. Through books we can reap the advantage from the experience of noble minds. Through it we come to have a keener insight into life and its problems, and a lasting interest in our neighbours and surroundings. Life does not have a dull and monotonous aspect any longer but in every page we come across fresh wonders and mysteries waiting for us.

We have, however, to be very careful in our selection of books to read. In the world of today, we find countless writers writing very large numbers of books—good, bad and in-different. Before the invention of the printing press it was difficult for a man to get hold of the manuscript of a good book but now due to the great number of books available for reading it has become very difficult for us to choose what books to read and what to reject. The selection of proper books has now become a matter of great interest, as well as necessity to the reader.
It was the English author Bacon who said that reading makes a full man. No one can question the truth of this saying. But we cannot derive full advantage from reading, if our choice is not good. Some books are such that instead of doing any good, they do positive harm to the readers. Such books must be avoided. Cheap books, not in cost but in contents, should not be read, even if they provide some amusement and entertainment. It is the reading of good books alone which bestows upon us the maximum benefit.
Reading of good books is the key to the store-house of pleasure